Assertions and Evidence – Amy
To Amy, science and mathematics are content knowledge that helps her students to do problem solving in
engineering. As for technology, she considered technology
as the newest piece in her STEM teaching. She believed
that in her school, they did not apply technology enough.
She knew that technology is more than just computers.
However, it was hard for her to use technology other than
computers, because of the limited school resources. Amy
believed that in an effective STEM integration unit, the
engineering piece needed to combine, not only problem
solving, but also the content knowledge of science and
mathematics. She said, ‘‘I do think that the initial layer of
engineering does need to be problem solving. But the next
layer is that engineering really has to have content pieces.
They (students) really have to understand when they should
pull mathematics or science concepts in to help them solve
the problem.’’ She believed STEM integration helped her
students to think independently and to become more confident in learning, to learn how to communicate with each
other, and to become skilled at teamwork. She stated,
‘‘They (the students) start to think ‘What am I good at?
What am I weak at?’ They start to ask us about different
engineering jobs and [start to be] willing to take technology
education classes in high school. STEM integration got
them to think about their careers, futures, and [encouraged]
the feeling that ‘I can do it.’ That was so cool!’’ Amy also
stated, ‘‘I think communication and teamwork are other
benefits that students learn from STEM integration. They
have to learn how to work with others and how to
handle controversies in a professional way.’’ She gave an
example - one of art student groups had broken one of her
engineering team’s chairs. She was amazed to see how her
students put aside their anger in order to handle the
situation in a very professional way (finding other solutions
to rectify the situation).